Environmental conservation and preservation

FILE - In this July 8, 2019 file photo President Donald Trump listens as Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt speaks during an event on the environment in the East Room of the White House in Washington. The Trump administration has finalized changes to enforcement of the landmark Endangered Species Act, a move it says will improve transparency and effectiveness but critics say will drive more creatures to extinction. Bernhardt unveiled the changes Monday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Trump administration's changes to the Endangered Species Act (all times local): 3:20 p.m. California and Massachusetts say they'll go to court to fight the Trump administration's overhaul of the Endangered Species Act. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey...

In this handout photo taken on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019 and provided by Fundacion Catalunya La Pedrera, a two month old lynx looks up at the Mont Natura complex in Alt Aneu Pallars Sobira, Spain. A Spanish nature conservation center says that the first baby lynx on record has been born in the Pyrenees in nearly a century. The Eurasian lynx is considered extinct in the Spanish and French Pyrenees. (Fundacion Catalunya La Pedrera Via AP)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A Spanish nature conservation center says that the first baby lynx has been born in the Pyrenees in nearly a century. The Eurasian lynx is considered extinct in the Spanish and French Pyrenees, and the last time it was witnessed in these mountains was in the 1930s. The...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Nine conservation groups on Wednesday sued the U.S. Interior Department over its latest proposed land trade that could lead to a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska. The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula contains...

MOSCOW (AP) — The head of Russia's meteorological service says he sees global climate change as a factor behind the wildfires blazing throughout Siberia and the country's Far East. The total area of the blazes increased on Friday to about 31,000 square kilometers (12,000 square miles), according to...

Heavy smoke covers the center of the eastern Siberian city of Chita, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits the region. Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency in five areas, including all of the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions, which lie north of Mongolia. (AP Photo)

MOSCOW (AP) — Hundreds of Russian towns and cities are shrouded in heavy smoke from wildfires in Siberia and the Far East Thursday, and the blazes appear to be spreading in remote terrain. Avialesookhrana, Russia's aerial forest protection service, said more than 30,000 square kilometers (11,850...

California’s iconic redwood trees have been standing for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years, surviving significant obstacles from logging to drought and fires. Now, experts say the redwoods are taking on climate change.

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2018 file photo, emigrant Peak is seen rising above the Paradise Valley and the Yellowstone River near Emigrant, Mont. The Trump administration has put a conservative advocate who argues for selling off the nation’s public lands in charge of the nation’s 250 million public acres. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Monday signed an order making William Perry Pendley acting head of the Bureau of Land Management, putting the lawyer and Wyoming native in charge of public lands and their resources. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ardent critic of the federal government who has argued for selling off almost all public lands has been named the Trump administration's top steward over nearly a quarter-billion federally controlled acres, raising new questions about the administration's intentions for vast...

This Monday, July 29, 2019 photo provided by the San Diego Zoo shows a day-old southern white rhino calf stands beside its resting mother, Victoria, at the at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, Calif. The zoo has announced the first successful artificial insemination birth of a southern white rhino in North America. San Diego Zoo Global says the mother gave birth to a healthy male calf Sunday July 28, 2019, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Mother and calf will remain off-limits to the public for now to allow them to bond. (Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A conservation organization in San Diego says it has achieved the first successful artificial insemination birth of a southern white rhino in North America, an important step in saving another rhino species from extinction. San Diego Zoo Global announced that mother Victoria gave...

FILE - In this July 26, 2019, file photo, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a session at the National Governor's Association conference in Salt Lake City. Five Democratic governors of states in the Great Lakes region want candidates in next year's presidential election, including President Trump, to back a plan for protecting their freshwater resources. Led by Whitmer, the governors on Monday, July 29, 2019, proposed a six-point platform that seeks increases in federal spending on water treatment infrastructure and environmental cleanups. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Five Democratic governors of states in the Great Lakes region Monday urged the candidates in next year's presidential election to support a plan for safeguarding their shared waters by boosting federal spending on treatment plants and environmental cleanups. Led by...

A Royal Bengal tiger rests at its enclosure at the Alipore zoo in Kolkata, India, Monday, July 29, 2019. India's tiger population has grown to nearly 3,000, making the country one of the safest habitats for the endangered animals.Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the tiger count for 2018 on Monday said it's a "historic achievement" for India as the big cat's population had dwindled to 1,400 about 14-15 years ago. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's tiger population has grown to nearly 3,000, making the country one of the safest habitats for the endangered animals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the tiger count for 2018 on Monday and said it's a "historic achievement" for India, whose big cat population had...